Plead the First

A story on NPR this morning talked about Jobs Partnership of Florida, “a faith-based group that believes the path out of poverty is through spiritual transformation.” It’s a work-training program for recovering drug adicts, single moms, and other people who might need help getting a fresh start in the workforce. As part of the program, a pastor helps the participants learn about “attitude and character.”

The program sounds admirable, and they appear to be doing a good job of accomplishing their mission – they claim to have placed 70 percent of their graduates in “career-path” jobs. However, one aspect that was mentioned seemed a little off to me. One of the graduates, Allen Baldwin, had this to say:

Asked to name the most key insight from the program, Baldwin says: “Integrity. What would you do when the boss is not looking? What would you do when you don’t have to come in a certain time and you don’t have to leave — you don’t have to clock in or clock out?… So integrity is a big thing to me and I believe when nobody’s watching, God is watching.”

Stephen Coon, Baldwin’s boss at the recycling company where he now works, echoed this, saying:

I know I don’t have to be in the building for things to go the right way, because they have someone greater than me to be accountable to.

Is it really displaying “integrity” though if your hard work is due to the belief that you’re always being watched by a boss of some sort – whether that boss is God or your actual on-the-job boss? Who is displaying greater integrity – someone who gets the work done because they believe that God is watching, or someone who gets the work done even if they think no one at all is watching?

This entry was posted on Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 11:49 pm and is filed under Religion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.